I just caught the show on the HISTORY CHANNEL, where the sister of Butch Cassidy claimed that he returned to the USA in 1925, and died sometime in the 1930’s.
Is there any evidence (beyond her word) to confirm this?
I saw something years ago, about how they tried to find Cassidie’s grave in Bolivia…they never found the body.
Assuming Cassidy survived the ambush in Bolivia, how old would he have been in 1930?
This belongs in General Questions, as it could have a factual answer. On a quick search I found he was born on 15 April 1866. Thus he’d only have been about 64 in 1930 if still alive. Hardly a very old age. Short of finding his body and proving it is him by DNA testing likely we’ll never know. The problem here is that on the theory Butch didn’t die in Bolivia in 1908, and he returned to the US, likely he would have told very few family members, if any at all. With the prevailing view, even amongst lawmen, that he died in South America, nobody would be looking for him in the US. Thus, keeping his mouth shut as much as possible would have been a Good Idea.
Fun thread – maybe IMHO though ? – because I doubt that anyone is going to take the definitive position strongly.
You know they dug him up right? In the tiny Bolivian town where someone was shot down – it may have been NOVA on PBS – they showed an hour on the disinternment safari . It took place in a really haunting town that was why I remember this so well - I always wanted to visit it. Anyway, the DNA results of the skeleton claimed to be Butch and Sundance by the locals, who recalled that two gringos were killed by soldiers in '08 and buried in X spot – was negative.
IIRC The archeologist in charge was a firm believer that Butch was buried there and would not accept the results and pointed to all kinds of site contaminants – FWIW I got the strong impression that the locals were taking the gringo archeologist and his camera crew on a snipe hunt.
Great site on their last days.
http://americanhistory.about.com/library/prm/bllastdays3.htm
From the site (and FWIW)
William A. Pinkerton had heard about the San Vicente shootout, but had dismissed “the whole story as a fake.” The agency never officially called off the search for Butch and Sundance. Indeed, in 1921, Mr. Pinkerton told an agent that “the last we heard of [the Sundance Kid]…he was in jail in Peru for an attempted bank robbery. Butch Cassidy had been with him but got away and is supposed to have returned to the Argentine.” Needless to say, the Pinkertons never caught up with the pair.
That even though news had got out claiming that Butch was killed in South America Pinkerton still had doubts he was dead, if Butch was alive he’d have every incentive to lay as low as possible. Even hiding that he was alive from most, if not all, his kin. There would always be the chance they’d have loose lips.
Recently, Yahoo News carried a story…some historian claims that Cassidy did survive, and returned to the USA-where he assumed the name of Philips.
I wonder if anyone will spend the money to prove/disprove this?
Not sure if money would help. Ashworth and Pointer’s main evidence is a dime novel.
Ralph, if you’re thinking someone might bother to exhume William T. Phillips to validate this rather cockamamie idea, I don’t think funding is the main issue.
Someone knows where Philips was buried, dig him up and compare the DNA. I’m sure his relations would want to know, and if he has no relatives no one will care.
Quote: Sitnam
Pointer’s own book In Search of Butch Cassidy was more than just a dime novel. He did draw heavily from the Phillips manuscript, but he also did interviews and archive research in Utah/Wyoming where Cassidy had lived. He did not claim unequivocally that Phillips was Cassidy, but he presented fairly strong evidence that this was the case. And others have made credible claims as well. Louis L’Amour, the western novelist (who actually was a competent historian on occasion) claimed in his autobiography to have travelled extensively in the Hole-in-the-Wall country in the 1930’s and 40’s, and to have talked to a number of old-time residents who had known Cassidy well into the 20th century. Robert Redford hosted a national geographic special on the region and interviewed Lula Parker Betenson, Cassidy’s younger sister whom I believe survived into the 1970’s
As to the matter of DNA testing, William Phillips is said to have been cremated, so it is unlikely that we’ll ever know for sure.
SS
Personally, I like the idea that Butch ended his days on the drawing board.
“raindrops keep falling on my head…”